Gail writes: light is not only bright...
Exactly, the word is yet another example of our limited use of language! Light means not heavy and also not dark; in Quakerism it is the Guiding Spirit or Divine Presence within each of us. The ideas that go through my head immediately are all the phrases we use with reference to light:
Don't hide your light under a bushel; she has a light touch; light-fingered; light-hearted; hold in the Light; the Light of the World; the Lord is my Light.
I realise that i have been very serious throughout this blog. For 33 days i have consulted dictionaries, pondered over quotes, contemplated, reflected and bared my soul. Today, i am going to allow "light" to be a reference to "light-hearted". The image helps. Camden is a sweet bear found by my mother in Camden, Maine. He has such a solemn look on his face but in an endearing way. This photograph of him looking mournful with tulips bowing over him and the figure weeping into her hands is full of pathos, it tugs at my heart-strings but it also allows me to chuckle if i am light-hearted about it. Why can i not interpret the scenario differently? What if i see the woman as laughing so much that she is rocking forwards and back and the photograph caught her at the moment when she's folded over mid-guffaw? And perhaps Camden is the cause of her hysterics. Maybe they were seeing who could keep a straight face the longest and he's the winner?
Whatever... The fact is that i can choose how i see things. I can hide in the shadows or stand in the light with my face turned to the sun, arms open. Rainbows only appear when it rains. I might dislike the rain but a rainbow always makes me smile, lifts my spirits, lightens my heart.
Daylight, sunlight, moonlight, starlight, firelight... May God light a fire of joy and delight in us anew each day.
Here are a few quotes i came across and enjoyed:
Moonlight is sculpture. Nathaniel Hawthorne
There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures. James Thurber
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Chinese Proverb
LIGHT - bright - bold -
ReplyDeleteperhaps it is our light or the light within us) that scares us.. perhaps that is why we try to hde our light, place it out of site, try to extinguish it.. or light the absence if darkness?
Perhaps it is that which enables us to see whether it is dark or bright - an essential part of our existance
From The Message
The Life-Light
The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.
John 1:1-5